Washing machine agitator



OCL 7, 194-1. BAsLER 2,257,932

WASHING MACHINE AGITATOR Filed Nov. 14, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l IINVENTOR.

AZBEIP? a 3/15! 2 ATTORNEYS Oct. 7,1951.

A. H; BASLER- 2,257,932

WASHING- MACHINE AG'ITATOR Filed iqov. 14, 1958 v 2 Sheets-Shet 2 x IINVENTOR. A185??? [7! 3454s Patented Oct. 7, 1941 WASHING moms AGIIATOBAlbert E. Basler, East Cleveland, 01110 Application November 14, 1938,Serial No. 240,235

' 3 Claims. o]. 684134) present time consist of metallic castings and ofnecessity such agitators have hard surfaces which have an abrasiveeiIect on the clothes being washed, resulting in rapid wear oi theclothes during the washing operation Initially, washing .machineagitators ordinarily have highly polished surfaces. but with continueduse, these surfaces-become scratched and pitted, increasing the abrasiveaction on the clothes.- Some agi-. tator designs include'vanes havinga'number of holes drilled therethrough, the purpose of the holes beingto improve the circulation of the iiuid and to give a better washingaction. The

.holes in such agitators must be drilled, reamed and chamfered withgreat care, otherwise the holes will present sharp edges which willrapidly wear the fabrics being washed.

It has been previously proposed to cover washing machine agitators byvulcanizing rubber thereto, ,or by coating with various synthetic resinssuch as phenol condensation products.

. However, such proposals have not met with any considerable success forthe following reasons, among others: the operation of vulcanizing rubberto an agitator of complicated form is so expensive that it is.prohibitive;. the rubber so vu1- canized may not adhere permanently tothe base material forming the agitator and does not have a soft smoothsurface; and it is impossible to vulcanize rubber to agitators havingperforated vanes. The synthetic resin coatings generally speaking arethin and hard, are subjected to wear, are apt to become scratched or tocrack and chip in severe service, and do not provide a soft, resilientand smooth surface. Such coatings are so thin that they follow almostexactly the contour of the base on which they are deposited, andtherefore the base material must be carefully polished before thecoating is applied and must be formed with just as great a degree careas in the case or uncoated metallic agitators. I

According to my invention I apply to the agitators a smooth, resilientcoating of rubber or rubber-like material by depositing the materialfrom a solution or dispersion thereof in which the agitator frame orbase is immersed. Thus I am able economically to provide washingmaposited. Preferably adhesion oi the coating or openings to' key therubber UNITED STATES PATIENT OFF-lC-E chine agitators of practically anydesirable form witha smooth resilient coating of deposited rubher which,while it is soft, resilient and flexible to the. touch, is very toughand adheres perms nently to the base or frame of the agitator. Thecoatings can be of almost any desired color, the colors being bright andpermanent. Such at,- tractively colored agitators greatly improve the Isalability of the washing machines in which they are installed.

By depositing the rubber or rubber-like material from. a solution,smooth, continuous. coatings can be deposited on frames or supports ofpractically any-desired shape, without the necessity of providingexpensive molds or other equip- 'ment which would be-necess ary i; thevulca process were employed. Further, the process of depositing thecoating material from a solution produces acoating which, for allpractical pur poses. does not deteriorate withage, which is resistant towear, and which ,is not adversely afiected by the soaps or othersolutions employed in washing machines even if they be strongly alkalineor corrosive in character.

I have discovered that deposited rubber coatings can be caused toadherefirmly and perms-'- neatly,- provided certain precautions are taken inthe'design and construction of the support or Irame on which the rubbercoating is dethe frame or support is formed of metal. Aluminum or alloysof aluminum are especially suitable, for such metals are a light andstrong. do not react with the deposited coating and are resistant tocorrosion. The denser the structure of the metal the better the thereto.Therefore I preferably form the frames of the agitators from rolledaluminum sheets. from forsinaaor from;

dense castings. preferably die castings or permanent mold castings. Thedeposited rubber coatings will adhere permanently thereto providedeither that sharp inside corners or acute angles are eliminated, or thatthe rubber coatingis keyed to the support in the region of the insidecorners or acute base, which become filled with the deposited rubber andfunction to retain the coating in place thereon. In the case of densecastings, for example. permanent adhesion of the rubber coating to thebase material can be obtained either by employing concave suriaceshaving radii of prererably'not less than about 96 of an inch in place ofthe comparatively sharp acute angles ordinarily encountered or by usingholes to the base in the angles by drilling-holes in the- 2 corners, inwhich event the radius of the inside i to employ smaller by employing asingle row corners can be greatly reduced. it being possible radii byincreasing the num-, ber of holes formed in the region of the corners orangles. For example, a rubber coating with adequate adhesion can bedeposited on a concave surface having a-radius of about of an inch ofholes about inch in diameter and spaced 1 inch apart. For a corner whichis substantially sharp or.which has only a small fillet, it may benecessary to employ three rows of holes spaced /2 inch apart. Largerradii can of course be employed satisfactorily. In castings of lessdense materials I prefer to employ radii greater As stated above, bydesigning the base or frame with these limitations in view, it ispossible'with slight modifications to cover satisfactorily any typeofwashing machine agitator of I which I am now aware. Inthe drawings Ihave illustrated the invention as applied to two particular types ofagitators. Figure 1 is a perspective view of an agitator having a shapegenerally similarto a well known type and providedwith a rubberinvention; Figure 2 is a section as indicated on line 2-2 of Figure. 1:Figure 3 is a section on large scale as indicated-byline 3-1 of Figure1; Figure 4 is a section as indicated byline H on Figure 1: Figure 5 isa section as indicated by line 5--! on Figure 1; Figure 6 is aperspective view of a different type of agitator having a than thosespecified above.

covering in accordance with my ferred methods being described in detailin Patent No. 1,959,201,

dated May .15, 1934, and Re issue Patent N0. 19,155, reissued IMity- 8,1934.

., Briefly, an adhesive is first appl ed to the frame or support, acoagulant is applied to the-adhesive, then the framehaving the coatingof adlarge radii form generallysimilar to the agitator of a well knowntype and having a cover of rubberor rubher-like material provided inaccordance with my invention: and Figures '1. 8; 9, and 10 are sectionsthrough such agitator as indicated by the lines 1-|, ll, l--I. andIll-i0 OD'Flgllle' 6, respectively. Throughout the drawings, the

thickness of the coating material is exaggerated 40 for the sake ofconvenience in illustration.

The agitator shown in Figure 1 comprises a frame or support preferablyin the form of a casting having a pase portion indicated generally atIn, a vertical central portion or center post indicated at Ii and radialextending vanes II, II and II which are curved as shown to produce thedesired action when the agitator is os-' cillated in a washing machine.The agitator may be oscillated by an angular shaft (not shown)projecting upwardly from the power unit of the washing machine andengaging the ana gular portion 1! of a recess withinthe center post II,and may be secured to the shaft by means of a bolt I (see Fig. 5)extending through the center post into engagement with .the shaft, theupper end of the bolt being provided with a nut II or screwhead so thatthe agitator maybe released and removed from the machine if desired.Preferably'the casting is of aluminum or alloy of aluminum in the formof a dense cast lng, such as a permanent mold or die casting.

The casting is provided in' accordance with my 'mg of the desired hesivematerial thereon is dipped into, for example, an aqueous dispersion ofnatural rubber or latex or various synthetic rubber-like mateallowed toremain fora sufllcient time for a coatthickness to be built up thereon.The preferred thickness canbe built up in a few minutes with only asingle dip being required. Thereafter the frame or support is removedfrom the solution, the deposited material is permitted to dry and isfinally cured under heat. Those skilled in the art will appreciate thatthe processes, such as the intermittent dipping or electrolytic depositprocess for example maybe employed to produce the coating.

In order to prevent the deposited rubber from pulling away from insidecorners or concave surfaces of the frame or support. that is from areasthereon where two surfaces meet at an angle of less than 18!)", Ipreferably form all such inside corners or concave surfaces withcomparatively as shown. For example the base portion it comprises aseries of steps II, 21 and 23 connected by intermediate curved portions2| and 25. Heretofore, metallic agitators of the same. general shape asthese have had substantially cylindrical vertical surfaces between thesteps; with sharp corners or very small-fillets in the inside corners.Contrary to this practice,-

and to insure adhesion of the rubber deposit. I employ sweeping curves,the radius of curvature of the concave portions 24 and It beingpreferably not less than of an inch with the materials specified. At thejuncture between the base portion Ill and the center post II the castingis preferably provided with a similar large radius as indicated at ill.A similarly large radius is portions 35,-" and 31 which insures properadinvention with a coating or deposit 2! of rubber which firmly adheresto the aluminum throughout the entire area thereof. or at least thatportion that is adaptedto come into contact with the clothes when theagitator is incorporated in a washing machine. This material may bedeposited to substantially any desired thickness but preferably is ofabout .035" to .04 as this thickness gives ample wearing qualities, hasthe desired resilience and softness and can bear:-

plied rapidly and economically. The rubber coating may be herenoe of therubber-like material to the'base,

in these concave areas.

The entire under surface of the base ll need not be coated with rubberas this surface does not .come into contact with the clothes during thewashing operation. Thus the When can be terminated on the under surfaceof "the base II at any convenient point. However, I preferably continuethe coating throughout the under surface thereof to the region adjacentthe opening ii, the edge of the rubber coating being indicated at 40. Toassure the proper adherence .of

' the material to the under side of the base, .the

concave areas of the under side of the base preferably have radii of atleast 56 of an inch as indicated particularly at H and II;

To prevent any possibility of fluid workingin between the rubber coatingand the base'material at the edge of the coating I preferably employ awasher or ring II which may be secured to the metal of the base as byscrewsf'l|.-.' '1he deposited on the washer firmly engages the rubber inthe re ion casting from solutions by various methods, preadjacent theedge 4|, holding the edge portion in contact with the metallic base.Thus all possibility of fluid penetrating between the rubber coating andthe underlying metal is prevented, and the edge of the coating ispermanently retained in position.

At the top of the agitator, the coating terminates at the upper end ofthe central portion H as indicated at II in Figure 5. The rubber coatingis held in firm engagement with the metallic base material at this pointby the nut I] which, as pointed out above, also functions to hold theagitator onto the oscillating shaft of the washing machine. Thus it willbe seen that the vanes, to improve the circulation of the washingfluid.As shown in Figure 3 the rubber is deposited on the inner surfaces ofthe perforations and forms a smooth resilient-locating which covers .thesharp edges 41 thereof as indicated particularly at II. The wines ofagitators made accord ing to my invention can be provided with perfora-'tions with little additional expense, as it is only necessary to drill,punch, or otherwise form the openings. No reaming or chamferingoperations are required for any sharp or rough edges that may be left bythe operation of forming the holes will be completely covered by rubber,which will prevent any possibility ofdamage to the fabrics being washedcaused by contact with the edges of the perforations. Thus withagitators made according to my invention, no particular care need beeiercised in the formation of the perforation'sfor' any roughness whichmay occur will only result in better adherence of the rubber to the baseand cannotpossibly damage the clothes. Furthermore, the perforationsfunction to key the rubber layers to the metallic base as the rubberextends continuously through the perforations, and the rubber within theperforations serves to hold the rubber coatings on bothsides of the vanein firm engagement with;

the opposite surfaces thereof.

Throughout th'e'rubber covered surfaces of the agitator all concavesurfaces or inside corners" are preferably formed with inside cornershaving radii of curvature of at least of an inch. with such radii andwith a frame or support of material of proper characteristics as todensity, the coating will adhere firmly to all the concave surfaceswithout the necessity of employing holes or keys,

In Figures 6 to 10 I have illustrated the manner in which my inventionmay be applied to an agi-- tator,of another type. The agitator shown inthese figures comprises a base portion 50 having formed thereon a numberof horizontal ribs II. The agitator is provided with four equally spacedupwardly extending'vanes i2 having eurved portions .53 and there aresmaller straight vanes 54 disposed between the ribs 82. The ribs 62 andBI extend radially from the central portion or center post 55 and attheir upper portion the ribs are 'Joined to a radially extending disk.portlon knurled nut II which engages a threaded shaft within the centerpost and functions to hold the agitator in place in the washing machine.

As described in conjunction with the Figures 1 to 5, the frame orsupport preferably comprises an aluminum casting and all of the surfacesof the agitator, or at least those which are likely to .come intocontact with the material being washed are provided with a coating, 59of rubber deposited on the frame from a solution or dispersion aspreviously described. In order to as-. sure adhesion of'the rubber-tothe ribs'll and the concave surfaces adjacent the ribs, 1 preferablydrill a series of holes in each of the concave surfaces. These holes areof such diameter, about 1 of an inch for example, that when the base orframe is dipped into or otherwise coated with the rubber solution, theholes will be completely niled by the rubber deposited therein as shownat '2 which will be integral with the adjacent rubber coatings 59.Preferably the holes are about b of an inch in diameter and may bespaced about 1 inch apart longitudinally. The rubber deposited in theholes as shown particularly in Figure 8 serves to key the rubber to theconcave surfaces II and thus prevents any possibility of the coat-.

ing being loosened in these areas. In. the embodiment shown the holesextend through the base II and thus function to additionally secure therubber coating il on the under side 84 of the base. When this method ofkeying the coating to the base is employed ample adhesion can beobtained with radii of about 55 of an inch and in some instances it maybe desirable to employ such.

smaller radii rather than to use larger radii and eliminate the holesif.

In the remaining portions of the agitator the radii are increased sothat suflicient adhesion between the rubber coating and the casting isobtained at all points without the necessity of am ploying the holes orother keying devices. Thus the concave surfaces N between the vanes l2and 56 all have radii of preferably not less than of an inch to insurethe adhesion of the coat ing at this point. This constructionis'illustrated particularly in Figure 'I. .As shown in Figure 9 theconcave surfaces It formed at the intersection between the vanes and thedisk portion II have a sufficiently great radius, preferably not lessthan /8 of an inch, to insure adherence of the rubber coating to thecasting. Likewise as shown ous modification. Similarly the upper edgeportion is of the coating is heldin firm engagement .with the top of thecentral Portion I! by the knurled nut 68, the nut functioning in thesame manner as the nut is asshown inFigures 1 and 5.

If it is desired to increase the thickness of the coating in the regionsparticularly subject to wear such as the edges 'of the vanes, this canbe easily accomplished by applying an additional 4 amount of the rubbersolution or dispersion to positedv coating in the regions where thethicker deposit is desired.

It is to be understood that my invention can be applied to washingmachine agitators of various different types without departing from thespirit and scope thereof. For example, some types of washing machineagitators have a shorter center post or central portion and do notemploy a nut or any other similar device for retaining the agitator onthe oscillating shaft of the washing .1

machine. In this type of agitator the base material is solid at the topof-the center post and the rubber covering is extended across the top ofthe center post thus eliminating the exposed edges at this point.

By my invention it is possible to provide agitators which will reducethe wear on the fabrics being washed and which have a more efllcientwashing action than any agitators here-- .resilient coating, it isunnecessary-to polish the metalframes or bases before applyingthe'coating material thereto, and thus the expense of careful finishingoperations, which are required with ordinary washing machine agitators,is elim- By the use of the term "rubber in the specincaticn and claims Iintend to include various natural rubbers or-rubber-like substances.such as caoutchouc, balata, gutta-percha and also synthetic rubbers orrubber-like substances such as Chloroprene rubbers and materials such asNeoprene or- Buna or mixtures of these substances or similar substances.The solutions or dispersions of the materials employed may have anydesired degree of concentration or viscosity to meet the requirements ofthe coating operation and while the process has been described herein asa dipping process the rubber may if desired be applied to the forms byother methods as by spraying or' by electro-deposition. upon thecharacter of the material employed, the agitators having the depositedrubber thereon may be dried and cured at room temperature or slightlyabove, or, if desired, may in addition be cured at an elevatedtemperature.

Depending any des sn and that the methods and materials described hereincan be varied without departing from the teachings of my invention. .Itis therefore to be understood that the foregoing description is given byway of example only and that my invention is not limited to thepreferred form described herein or in any manner other than by the scopeof the appended claims when given the range of equivalents to which mypatent may. be entitled.

I claim: I

1. A composite washing. machine agitator comprising a metal frameincluding a base, anupri ht central post, and-a plurality of generallyradial vanes connected to the base and post, the surfaces at theJunctions of the vanes with the base and post being concave and formedby radii of at least in length, and a layer of deposited rubber on thesurfaces of said frame which are to be exposed to articles being washedin a washing machine, said layer adhering firmly to substantially theentire surface of the frame covered thereby. I 2. A composite washingmachine agitator comprising a metal frame including a base, an up rightcentral .post and a plurality of generally radial vanes connected tosaid base and post and having a plurality of perforations extendingtherethrough, the surfaces at the junctions of the vanes with the baseand post. being concave and formed by radiiof at least 7;" in length,and a-layer of deposited rubber on the surfaces of said base, post and-vanes and of the perforations 'of the latter, which surfaces are to beexposed to articles being washed in a washing machine, said layeradhering iirmly to substantially the entire surface of the frame coveredthereby.

3. A composite washing machine agitator comprising a metal frameincluding a base, an upright central post having an axial openingtherethrough and a plurality of vanes connected to said base and postand extending generally radially outward from the latter, the surfacesat the junctions of the vanes with the base and post being concave andformed by radii of at least in length, a layer of deposited rubberadhering firmly to all the surfaces of said frame covered thereby, saidlayerterminating adjacent the ends of the axial opening in the post, andmeans for clamping the coating to the frame adjacent to the ends of saidopening.

' ALBERT H. BABLER.

